A protector has usually been employed for protection of wire harnesses, which are routed behind an instrument panel of a vehicle and the like. When wire harnesses are routed along a mounting surface, a protector having U-shaped cross section is used to cover them, for example. In this case, the wire harnesses are covered by the three surfaces of the protector and the mounting surface, which serves as the fourth surface to make a closed surrounding.
The wire harnesses, which are installed behind an instrument panel, are often routed not along a mounting surface but in a space provided behind the instrument panel. In this case, a protector having a closed cross section is typically used, which covers 360 deg. around the wire harnesses. A protector of this type, which normally has at least two mounting elements which are mated with given receiving elements, is fixed by them.
Receiving elements are not necessarily positioned accurately with respect to each other due to errors associated with assembly and manufacturing. When one of the mounting elements of a protector is mated with one of the receiving elements, it may have the problem that a relative displacement between the other mounting element and the other receiving element occurs so that the protector cannot be smoothly attached. Even though a protector is usually made of a somewhat flexible material such as resin, it may be that a large load is applied to the mounting and receiving elements if the protector is forcefully bent during assembly. A protector having a closed cross section, which intrinsically has a small allowance in terms of flexibility due to high stiffness, especially burdens an operator with difficulty in attachment of the protector.